When I got back from the barn, I saw Ma down at the road. The mailbox is open, but she is kneeling in the gravel with her back turned to me. I don't have to see her face to know she's crying. Some things a son can sense.

Pa had been in the Great War but he didn't talk about it. When he left for town and didn't come back the next day, Ma was in a state. "Damn fools run off to war again!" she cursed, wailing and carrying on. I gave her a drink of Pa's whiskey to calm her nerves and helped her to bed. When I came back down from the barn at dinner, she was still sobbing in her room. Even had to make my own food.

Ole Doc Jimmy from town came around a week ago and caught Ma in the kitchen while I was tending to the chickens. She asked him all the questions she never talked to me about. Turns out Pa went down to the Legion and marched out of town that first night, to defend his country. Doc told her why he came round just after I came in. Turns out some scientisteggheads figured out a way to kill the Martians. Doc asked Ma if she had caught the Spanish Influenza that killed so many in round here in 1918. Neither of us had. He said that the Army had been working on making it a weapon, and it turns out that the bastards from Mars died in the hundreds in the first test. They saved Detroit before the figured out the problem.

In fact, because they had been messing with it, anyone who didn't get vaccinated was pretty much guaranteed to die. If you survived the first outbreak years back, you had a better chance. The lieutenant who directed the city under martial law had sent the old man out to share a secret. Vaccinations where going to be done, but a lottery for doses was gonna be held. Nobody ever figured we would use the germ bombs, so nobody made much of the vaccine. Now it was far too late. Doc said we would get a card in the mail if we got chosen. Sunday would be the deadline. After that, all you could do was hope for the best. Doc says we have a 50/50 chance, but think he's telling everybody that to keep people from panic. I thanked him for telling us the truth, and Ma showed him the door. We resolved ourselves to wait.